The Grand Illusion
by Sir NZ
Summary: What really is the difference between the characters we see in games and the people of the real world? What makes them heroes and us not? What if the world was not shackled by the natural laws of the universe? Would Heroes rise? Would Villians rise? AU


**Ideas for this story have been turning over and over in my head for far too long. I'm going to start this story just to get it out of my head so I can focus on How to Rebuild a Galaxy, my other story.**

**And yeah, I don't own anything.**

**From here on out, things in Bold Text are Dwight's thoughts, interjected into the story as his commentary or thought processes. **

**Oh, and Dwight's a bit of a perv too, so if that bothers you… well I just wanted to warn you.**

**The Grand Illusion**

**Chapter 1**

**Welcome to the Jungle**

_**Welcome to the Jungle, we've got fun and games…**_

It was a bright day as the blue haired boy stepped out of the beaten-up Mercedes. His eyes adjusted a bit from the sudden brightness suddenly surrounding him. He tilted his head down and walked to the passenger side of the car to pick up his dark blue backpack out of the back seat. His head turned to the front passenger door to see an older man get out of the passenger seat and turn towards him.

"Now you have a good day, Dwight. Be sure to be careful at this new 'school' if it can be called that" Ugh. Dwight. He hated the name his parents gave him. However, he covered up his displeasure and simply answered the man.

"Thanks Uncle, but what do you mean by 'if it can be called that'?" He asked while raising his eyebrows, expressing his curiosity.

"Just look at it. Doesn't look like the nicest of places, that's all. Not like your old school. This one might have some… _questionable_ characters at it, that's all" His uncle liked to you the expression that's all. He just has to cover up everything, not make anybody feel bad. That's always been the way it is with him. Ever since he was a little kid, his Uncle could never stand upsetting him or really anybody else for that matter. That didn't mean he didn't talk bad about anybody, but when it came to somebody getting upset at him, he was always first to apologize.

"Well alright, I'll be careful if that's what you mean"

"I'll see you at home after school"

Dwight waved goodbye as his uncle got into the driver's seat (He drove here to practice; Dwight only has his permit) and drove off. He abruptly turned around and took a look at the building looming in front of him. Two stories tall, it had a large window facing his direction on the second story, the first story was an open air walkway; presumably the entrance to the school.

Dwight remembered the directions given to him by the school's counselor when he registered here. Just walk under the library, which Dwight guessed was the large building in front of him, cross the quad, head to the second building on the right, and look for the room called K102. That would be his first period class.

As Dwight set out to enter through the gates of his new school, he passed the security guard, who seemed to not care enough to ask him for his I.D. card. **Good, it's not like I want to take out my wallet for something as stupid as that.** He also took notice at the amount of students in the hallway with him, or in this case, the lack thereof. Dwight had arrived a bit late, like he always did and he supposed that most students were already at class. As he entered the large open area, which he presumed was the "quad" he did see a couple of stragglers walking slowly to class.

Ahead of him were five school buildings that all looked identical, no identifying letters on them or anything particularly useful like that so Dwight just looked at the second one at the right and headed there. **Why do they call this a quad anyways? It's more like a circle.** His new school was, in fact, shaped like a circle. On the top of the circle were the library and administration buildings, on the sides were the lunch court, gym, and art buildings, and on the bottom were the five buildings were all the main classes were held.

Coming up to the first class he saw on the K building he saw the sign said K101. **Even numbers must be on the other side, like at El Coestre. **(His old school) Walking to the other side of the building, he saw a few posters on the bulletin board. But they were only silly things like Homecoming posters and the schedule for the varsity football team so he didn't bother looking at them.

**Here we are. K102. The first class in this new school. Hope it doesn't disappoint me too bad.** He pulled open the door and walked into class. He stopped after he entered the classroom, letting the door slowly shut behind him with a "click".

"And you must be Mister Graeil correct?"

He turned his head over to the right to see a woman at her desk, reading a piece of paper. She looked to be about thirty or so and well groomed. He couldn't see much of her attire, but he could see the top of what looked to be a dress. She looked him in the eye.

"The new student?" she repeated her question. He could sense her patience wouldn't stretch very far. He swallowed the spit at the back of his throat and casually answered: "Why yes I am" she looked back down at the paper in her hand, presumably her attendance sheet.

"Well, Dwight" she emphasized his name for some reason "We hear at Eastern Heights High School don't appreciate tardies. You are lucky in this case because I have just moved to this classroom so I took a little extra time to get my bearings together, delaying my lesson. You will not be late tomorrow" That last sentence was more a demand than an order. Her eyebrows were narrowed and her mouth silently communicated "lest you face the consequences"

"Now let's find you a seat…" she trailed off as her eyes scanned the room from left to right. Dwight noticed she bit her lip as she did so. "Ah! Take a seat next to Miss Harkinian there!" She pointed to a girl that sat by herself on the right side of the room. Dwight obliged and walked towards the two-person table.

As he walked towards the girl, he began to note her appearance. "Miss Harkinian" looked like an interesting girl. She was undoubtedly his age, since this class was a softmore-only class. Her face was slightly elongated, more than normal, her neck looked longer than most people's and she had a long blonde ponytail in a braid that went behind her seat. She pretended not to notice him as he walked up, turning her head up to the ceiling.

"Hello. My name is Dwight" He put his books down on the table and did a small wave. She turned her head towards Dwight's direction and he saw her eyes look him up and down. With a sigh, she began:

"Hey Dwight. I'm Jaclyn" Now that she was turned to him, he could see much more of her. She was wearing the normal blue jeans, a tight-fitting purple blouse that exposed a bit of cleavage, **Probably an A-cup I'm gonna guess**, and just enough eye shadow to make her eyes look… dark and mysterious. Oh yeah, she also had amber colored eyes, **That border on almost being red**. She eyed him a bit more before opening up her mouth to speak.

"So are you new here? I don't remember seeing you last year"

"Yeah, I just moved here from Colorado" She tilted her eyes up, interested in the place of mention.

"Reeaallllyyyy… Colorado?" she emphasized each "o" in the word, as if inventing a new pronunciation. "You mountain bike?" he nodded. "Ski?" another nod. "Snowboard?" nodding once again. "Cool. What else do you do for fun?" she asked, twirling a loose strand of her hair not in the ponytail around.

"Well, I like to play Madden on in a while on my Xbox, I'm interested in rebuilding cars, and I'd love to learn how to fly a plane someday" she looked a bit confused at his answer. He quickly turned red and spat out:

"Oh, I guess I really didn't answer your question, umm…" he paused while his mind was racing to think of things he liked to do that didn't involve video games or anything dorky like that. It was then, when she was looking at him with a small smile on her face, that he noticed how pretty she was. **That way she smiles just kills me. And there was something about her ears that were oddly attractive. In fact, her whole face just seemed to kind of mesh together, even with the oddity of those red eyes in it.**

"Ah ha, I really like to play football with other guys-" she interrupted him "Only with guys? So a girl like me who plays football would probably give you a run for your money then huh?" She had a telltale smile on her face, signaling she was of course kidding, waiting for his response.

"Of course not, maybe if I didn't try you might be able to squeak out a victory, but otherwise no way" he said with a small laugh escaping his mouth as he did so.

"Alright class, welcome to Advanced Placement European Civilizations, or APEC for short. We will be exploring the history of Europe from the period 1500 to modern day. I am your teacher, Mrs. Cavendish, now let's get started. After the Roman Empire fell, Europe was in disarray…" Mrs. Cavendish began her lesson, stopping the small conversation between Dwight and Jaclyn.

After class was out, Dwight and Jaclyn picked up their books and walked out the door together. Dwight had his books on his hip, while Jaclyn carried hers close to her chest, **Damn it**, and they walked down the hallway a bit, making small talk. Dwight started to turn right down the intersection of two hallways but Jaclyn stopped.

"Well, my next class is the other way so I guess I'll see you later" she said with a face of contentment.

"Alright, I'll see you later Jaclyn" He said as he began to turn around and walk away. He was surprised to hear her call back.

"Ya know, we have to work on that name of yours. Dwight" **She says it almost with the same discontent I do. Cool.** "How about Ike? That's a strong, manly name right?" She chuckled "Of course it is. Right, see you later Ike" she said with a wave. He watched her as she turned around, and as her braid flew in the same direction she turned. She walked a bit more erect than other people he noticed. **She also looks a bit tense.** Nevertheless, he walked away satisfied with his first meeting with the girl from first period. Jaclyn. He said it again, in his mind. **Jaclyn, sexy name for a sexy girl.**

* * *

Since his trip from the K building to the E took him across the campus, and nobody had really been in the hallways before when he walked to his first class, the journey to his chemistry class offered him his first look at his new classmates. **They look the same. Except a little more extreme. The girls are prettier. The boys are bigger. The bookworms are even smarter. The sluts are sluttier. The jocks are more muscular. I guess they aren't so similar. **

His physics class really wasn't all that great anyways. He actually got assigned seating in this class so he really didn't have a choice when it was determined he sat next to a blonde ditzy-looking girl. She looked like your typical high school "popular" girl if you will. Her blond hair was perfect. Shiny, straight and down to about her breasts. She had eyeliner on that was so neat it was clear it had been done by an expert hand. She had on a miniskirt, and a pink blouse that exposed plenty of cleavage. **Hmm… I'd guess a C cup, if somebody had to ask me of course. **And her face… was pretty much amazing. Startlingly pretty, she had a well-rounded face, with sapphires instead of eyes. Her lips were just the right consistency, a far cry from the thin lips that graced Jaclyn's face.

And again, unlike Jaclyn, this blonde paid no heed to him. She quickly turned away from him and didn't give him a second glance. Ten minutes into the lesson she pulled out a Blackberry and began texting away, already bored with the intro lesson the chemistry teacher had begun. **Just another loser "cool" girl. Such a shame, she's so pretty. She'll probably end up working at some gas station once she gets pregnant and is forced to drop out of high school. Then she'll be lucky if she has a used flip phone to text people on. **Dwight didn't really like people in the "in" crowd, that had all the latest gadgets, and had their cars bought for them with their parent's money, he always found them to be… superficial.

* * *

After second period Chemistry class came third period Literature class. Literature was the most boring and pointless subject, because to him, it was the most useless thing in the real world. Honestly, when he's working in some cubicle some day for some big company, when will he need to know the popular writing style of the mid-17th century? His journey on the way there was a bit more interesting than the one a period earlier.

Halfway on the relatively short journey from the E building to the J building he saw a group of four people walking in a straight line towards his direction. Unable to completely get around them, he ended up hitting one of their shoulders with his own as he tried to get by.

"Hey you!" Dwight froze. **Obviously the school bullies.**

"What're ya doin, tryin to cause trouble here in our school? Watch where you're goin next time or we'll rough you up!" Of course he managed to bump shoulders with the largest out of the four. The largest one was over six feet tall, and looked like he was probably a linebacker for the football team. The second largest one looked a bit… snake-like, if that made any sense and stood about medium height. The third one might have been the only normal looking one out of any of them and might have been an inch shorter than the second one. The last one was a pipsqueak, but he was a buff pipsqueak. One of the people that while they hardly stood taller than five feet, you could tell that this guy again was not someone that you wanted to mess with.

"Well, got anything to say for yourself…" he paused for intimidation purposes "Punk" he spat out.

"Hey Chester, you can move along now, and go fail that pop quiz the chemistry teacher has planned for you!" Dwight knew that voice. It sounded awfully familiar. He was reminded when he saw a female figure with a long blond braid stepped in the way of his large assailant, presumably the one called Chester, and himself.

"Well well well, what do we have here? The _Shiek_ helping out one of her loyal subjects? Buzz off girlie, and go play with your grenade launchers and terrorist toys" the second one spoke. **Wait, "Shiek"? I thought her name was Jaclyn.**

"Hey go fuck yourselves and leave him alone, after all, we don't want the principal of our lovely school to find out what happened last month do we?" she said with a slight smile as the bullies' faces all got a frown upon them.

"Are you going to hide behind that blackmail for all eternity, Shiek? What if we decide to just accept the consequences for what we did? Then you would be out of leverage…" the fourth one spoke with a chuckle "and then bad things will happen. Bye bye, have fun on your jihad" The four walked away laughing at the seemingly hilarious joke cracked by their short companion.

Jaclyn turned back to Dwight and before Dwight could open his mouth, she began talking.

"Be more careful next time. Those guys are d bags and ass wipes. Just try not to get in their way and they won't bother you" she sighed as she looked at the ground and put her hands on her hips.

"Right, will do Jaclyn. Speaking of which, they called you Shiek. What's up with that?" Dwight was curious to know where they got "Shiek" form "Jaclyn". As if debating whether she should answer or not, she didn't answer immediately.

"Look, I can trace my lineage to the Middle Eastern shieks, like the ones that control the oil right now in Saudi Arabia. They just poke fun at the connection between them and the terrorist groups operating out of that area" Dwight raised an eyebrow at this odd connection "Really, it's the truth, they're racist bastards. No other reason" she assured him.

Eager to change the subject, Jaclyn spoke again. "Hey I hear you are in my friend's class for Literature. He's a real nice guy, you can't miss him, he has a red baseball cap on with a big "M" on it. Try and sit to him okay? I'm sure he'd love to meet you"

"Sure, I guess. Friendly faces seem to be at a premium here anyways" she laughed a bit at his joke.

"Okay, well I'll see you at lunch. You ARE sitting with me at lunch right?" she asserted. **Geez, I've known this chick for hardly three hours and she already wants me to eat lunch with her? Well I guess it can't hurt.**

"I don't know where to find you, but yeah, I'd love to"

"Okay…" a few more seconds of silence existed between the two. "Well I guess I'll see you later Ike!" she waved and walked down the hallway to her next class as she reminded him of his new nickname. His thoughts lingered on her a few moments longer, then he decided to turn down the hallway towards his Lit class.

Opening up the door to room J117, he noticed there were a few students interspersed through the classroom with a projector running. The image projected onto the wall had lots of little lines and names above them. **What is it with this school and seating charts?** He noted his place on the chart and sat down. As it turned out, the kid with the red baseball hat sat two seats to his right, and would have loved to talk to him, but there was another kid in the way. Normally this wouldn't have caused a problem for Dwight, but this guy just seemed to have an aura of silence around him. Even looking at him gave Dwight the feeling he was annoying the guy. So he looked to his left.

To his left was the prettiest girl he had ever seen… three seats down. To his immediate left was a Filipino kid who was taking out a huge sandwich. **Seriously, what is wrong with this guy? That sandwich is absolutely gargantuan. I'd be surprised if he could fit his mouth around that thing. **Looking at the sandwich it appeared to have at least four different kinds of meat in it, lettuce, tomato, onions, jalapenos, cucumbers, zucchini and many different kinds of cheese. All somehow fit between two six inch long slices of bread. Watching the guy eat a bite, he was quite surprised when he started talking across Dwight to the silent guy next to him.

"Hey man, the sandwich is kinda dull, get out the spices please?" he casually asked the silent one. The silent one slowly turned his to face the Filipino boy, still apparently waiting for the aforementioned spices.

"We aren't going to be doing what we did last year. I'm not carrying around condiments and spices in my backpack just so you can have a good sandwich" He did however, take out a few small bottles of spices as he said this. **So apparently these guys know each other.**

"Well alright, I guess I can bring a couple things" the hungry one took the top off his sandwich and began sprinkling little bits of random spices on his sandwich. Dwight was even more surprised when he saw that the boy had put salt on his sandwich too.

"Pass the mayo please" He held out his hand, waiting for the fattening spread to be passed to him. The silent one glumly looked into his backpack and took a white jar and passed it across Dwight. Dwight began to grow annoyed of this because they were soon passing more ingredients along. Barbecue bits, little pieces of pickle in a jar, bacon bits and what Dwight could swear was ground up pieces of tire. All of these surprisingly made their way onto the sandwich, and once the passing of ingredients stopped, the boy to his left started eating again. He flashed a thumbs up to the boy on his right and continued to perform the miracle of fitting his mouth around the sandwich more than once. **This guy is the loudest eater I have ever seen. It's like he's just here to bother me with his loud obnoxious chewing.**

"Heeeyyyyooooo!" The door suddenly bust open and a quite large student bust through the door. "And just how are my loyal subjects today?" He loudly asked the entire class. **Another "ruler"? What is this, monarch school? I'd better make sure I'm not in How to Rule a Country 101.** The class appeared a bit annoyed at his loud intrusion and remained quiet. It was so quiet you could hear sandwich-boy eating his sandwich.

"Just sit down Che" said the aforementioned prettiest girl Dwight had ever seen. "And stop calling us your 'subjects', nobody here appreciates it, aside from that little freak show in the back you call your family" She took a more assertive tone with him.

"Really guys, c'mon, you know it's a joke right?" Che asked uneasily as he looked around the rest of the room. "Lighten up, you guys need a little sense of humor" he sighed dejectedly as he turned to the projector to look at the seating chart. His face brightened up as he saw who he was sitting by, and then it turned solemn again. He walked over to his seat, between sandwich boy and pretty girl.

"Hey wassup cuz? How's the sandwich? I see Kono over there hooked you up with the good stuff" Che immediately ignored the girl and turned towards Dwight, Kono and sandwich boy. **Please don't tell me they are all related.**

"Hmm… Gulp. It's a great sandwich" He quickly began eating again, only a little quieter now that his "cuz" was here. Che leaned backwards in his chair to get a good look at Kono, the other Filipino on his right. "Good job in brining the good stuff today, cuz. It looks like you made Poyo over here really happy" **Great. I'm stuck between three guys named Che, Kono, and Poyo. Just great.** Kono gave a slight nod, then pointed towards the front of the class to signify that Che should pay attention.

An old lady stepped in from the hallway. Dwight guessed that she was the teacher. After all, she fit the mold of a literature teacher perfectly, small glasses and all. "Yes, let's see now… Hello!" She slightly raised her voice to try and get the classes' attention. **Which old ladies are never very good at anyways.** "WELCOME TO WORLD LITERATURE!" Dwight almost wanted to bust out laughing at the little old lady raising her voice like that. It worked to get the attention of everybody in class, but her voice made it almost comical.

"Now that everybody is paying attention…" she coughed a couple times to clear her throat "My name is Mrs. Rosenfelt and I will be your teacher. These seats that you are in will be yours until the end of this class, unless I see fit to move you to avoid disrupting the class" **Oh good Lord help me! Stuck between these three until January? I sure hope she's kidding…** "Now let's take attendance, when I say your name, just reply with 'present' or 'here' please. Marco!"

"Here" said the kid with the telltale red hat that Jaclyn had described to him.

"Oh dear… Why oh why did I get these three…" She sighed as she looked up to the back of the room.

"The Che cousins!"

"Present" "Don't worry, I'm here" and loud chewing was her response. **Woah, does that mean Che's full name is Che Che?** She said something under her breath, something about karma and stealing Robinson's coffee. A few other notables in the class were the pretty girl, the unnaturally short blonde kid in the front of the class, and a stressed out kid with glasses that arrived just as his name was being called. Dwight then promptly fell asleep after reading the first few pages of their first book, _Robinson Crusoe__**.**_

* * *

Dwight woke abruptly due to the slam of the other students' books slamming in synchronicity, as class was now over. He lifted his head and looked around as he saw the other students packing up and heading out the door, some more eager to go to lunch than others. Che and Poyo were quickly packed up and out the door, eager to go fill their stomachs even more. **They even cleaned up the mess Poyo made on the desk from his sandwich. Well if they are going to eat obnoxiously, at least they tidy up after themselves.** Kono however, slowly and purposely packed up. Sighing, Kono slowly followed his fellow classmates out the door.

Dwight walked out the door and down the hall towards the quad when he realized that he didn't really know where he was going. **I promised Jaclyn that I'd eat lunch with her and her friends… but I have absolutely no idea where they eat lunch. Heck I don't even know where the Che cousins eat lunch.** Feeling a bit discouraged, Dwight hung his head in defeat and slowly walked forward.

"Hey you" Dwight turned around. "Yes you, are you lost?"

"Yes I am. How did you know?"

"Well… I could tell by your body language that you are feeling a bit lost. Can I help you find somebody or someplace?" His speech was slow and purposeful, and it filled the air with an aura of tension and mystery, as if the other boy was manipulating him with carefully-chosen words.

"You… guessed right again!" **Alright, this is downright creepy, am I really that open about my feelings in my body language? **"I need to find someone named Jaclyn, could you tell me where she eats lunch?"

The other boy's eyebrows raised themselves a bit in intrigue at the mention of the red-eyed girl. "You would like to eat lunch with Jaclyn? I see the so called 'Shiek' has claimed another soul" **There goes that nickname again, is there something about her that I don't know? Then again, it's more than likely that there is something about this guy that I don't know.** Dwight couldn't help but notice the stranger's eyes. They were dark blue, but something was not right about them. Was it a hint of magenta?

Continuing his previous thought the stranger held his hand up and pointed the right of Dwight, which Dwight turned around to look in that direction, following the stranger's finger until he saw her sitting at one of the tables in the center of one of the tables in the middle of the outdoor lunch area. "There is the girl you seek. If I may ask however, why would you like to eat with her?"

Still looking at Jaclyn, Dwight responded "She actually invited me to eat with her, even though I just met her today" Dwight turned around to face the stranger "Thanks for the-" the stranger was gone. **Just as soon as he appeared, he disappeared. He seemed to not like Jaclyn for whatever reason though.** That, however, did not deter Dwight from continuing on his way to see his new friend.

* * *

Once Dwight got within 20 feet of the lunch table, Jaclyn noticed him and announced his presence to everyone at her table.

"Hey…" she gulped down the last of whatever it was she was eating before continuing "…Guys, I'd like you to meet my new friend, Ike. I met him in Lit class this morning and he's a pretty cool guy" Dwight couldn't help but turn a little red at that comment. She continued "It's cool if he eats lunch with us right? He's new to the school"

Dwight looked around the table for any dissent among the other three sitting there, and saw none, so he sat down next to one of the guys at the edge of the table.

"Hey new guy, what is the third thing you do when you catch on fire?" the girl across from him and next to Jaclyn was apparently trying to break the ice with a joke. **What… the… hell? Let's see… stop, drop and… roll!**

"You roll" he replied nonchalantly, killing the joke and any humorous tension she had created at the table.

"No…" she paused, wagging her finger, building suspense for the punch line. "You-" she was cut off by a passing student.

"DO A BARREL ROLL!" she turned to her left and saw the student who had finished her joke.

"Haha nice one, Josh, you know my jokes too well" she smiled at him and gave him a high five.

"Well it's not like I hear them every day or anything like that, Amanda" he replied sarcastically.

Amanda took on a face of mock offense and said "You are SO mean to me, all day. I don't even know why I talk to you anymore because all you do is make fun of me"

Josh looked up at the sky, smiled a bit and sighed. "So see you in chemistry okay?" he acted like nothing just happened.

"Get away from me!" she laughed as she got up and pushed him away, having fun although her words said she wasn't. **Umm… excuse me? What is happening? **

Amanda sat back down, still chuckling to herself and turned around one more time to look at Josh. Dwight looked at Jaclyn and saw her roll her eyes at Amanda with a slight smile. **I'm guessing this sort of thing happens often between them.**

"Right, well… as I said before, guys, this is Ike" she outstretched one of her palms out at him to indicate who he was once again.

"As you know, I'm Amanda. I'm the techie for the theatre" He looked at Amanda and actually got a good look at her. She looked just like a California surfer girl. Blonde hair, blue eyes, necklace of shells around her neck. Typical looks. She also wore a V-neck shirt with short sleeves, a mini skirt, and sandals. **Looks like about a C. Hmm… doesn't look like your typical theatre nerd.**

"And I'm Al" the boy next to him turned to him and spoke. He looked a bit bored however, and turned his attention back to his food as soon as he stopped talking. **What a lively one… I'm guessing he's the token carefree guy in the group.** The aforementioned Al had the same hair and eye colors as Amanda, but his face a bit different. His face was not as curved as hers was, it was much more angular in appearance, making his face look perpetually serious, despite Dwight's first impression. He also appeared to like the color green, as he could see that he had a green hat on, a green T-shirt, and even a green bracelet on. Breaking the trend were his brown belt, blue jeans, and the brown things on his feet that resembled moccasins. Overall, it gave him a very odd and unique look.

" 'Ello there, my name is Tess!" An extremely short boy had came from the other side of Al to shake his hand. **Isn't Tess a girl's name? And what's up with this dude's accent? "**Nice to meet you old chap!"

"Eh… Hello there… chap" Dwight nervously and slowly extended his hand to meet Tess' outstretched one. Once the tips of their fingers touched, Tess brought his other hand over and overenthusiastically shaking Dwight's hand with both his hands.

"Hahaha, trying to imitate my accent! I love it, um… bro!" Tess was apparently getting a lot of entertainment out of Dwight's feeble attempt to bridge the culture gap. "How did I do? Is that the appropriate title you Americans would use in that sort of situation?" He turned to Al, Jaclyn and Amanda for a response. Al didn't bother looking up while Jaclyn and Amanda simultaneously shrugged their shoulders, signifying their lack of an answer.

Tess calmed down a bit and regained his composure. He let Dwight's hand go and said "Well, by Jove I guess I'll get it right next time, eh?"

"Yeah, I'm sure you will Tess"

The rest of lunch passed by uneventfully as Dwight began talking with the rest of the group, including Jaclyn of course and began to get to know them a little better. **A decent group. They'll make a good circle of friends to hang around I guess.** And then came the bell telling the students to get to fourth period.

* * *

**ISNZ: Well there you have it, chapter one of the Grand Illusion. Be patient with the plot, it will pick up soon, I'm just taking the time to introduce the characters the populate Dwight's school. Each character (save teachers) will become a "smasher" and will be associated with each one of the characters. I've interspersed some hints to who they might be, but it's your job to guess. I'm also experimenting with a fusion of third person storytelling and stream-of-consciousness writing, as shown by Dwight interjecting into the narration every so often. Tell me what you think in a review.**

**The "Immortal" Sir NZ**


End file.
